1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the polishing of stone surfaces and, more particularly, to machinery and methods for grinding, honing, and polishing stone floors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many large commercial and industrial buildings have floors that are made of stone or some other similar hard surface. Marble and granite are two examples of the type of hard material used for flooring. These floors, like any other flooring material, are subject to wear and tear caused by pedestrian and machine traffic continually scuffing, scraping, and unevenly compressing the floor. Cleaning methods such as waxing and stripping can also be a source of wear and tear. Repeated waxing and stripping of stone surfaces is generally used by building maintenance since it is quite affordable to utilize a synthetic wax. However, for proper surface maintenance of stone floors, waxing and stripping is not desirable.
For proper maintenance of stone floors, it is necessary to apply a natural polish to the floor surface. A natural polish consists of constituents of the floor substrate, is naturally bonded to the floor substrate, is compatible with itself, and never needs to be stripped with harsh chemicals.
Furthermore, it is necessary from time to time, to grind the floor as well as polish it in order to remove scrapes, scratches, and unevenness due to the wear and tear of traffic and produce an aesthetically pleasing sheen to the floor.
From a long-term care and maintenance standpoint, it is thus preferred to grind, hone, and polish stone surfaces with a natural polish than it is to wax, strip, and rewax. However, the current state of the art of grinding, honing, and polishing stone floors makes it time consuming and expensive to accomplish. Therefore, such care is not being given to stone floors.
The prior art stone polishing machines and methods utilized a manually operated rotary buffer polishing machine in conjunction with a separate manually operated wet vacuum machine to perform the stone grinding, honing, and polishing process. Two men were required to conduct the floor polishing operation, one to operate the rotary buffer machine, and the other to operate the wet vacuum.
The prior art is thus inefficient in several respects. First, a two man crew is required, one to operate the rotary buffer and one to operate the wet vacuum. Another problem is that the rotary buffer and wet vacuum need to both be connected to standard AC via electrical cords. Oftentimes, the AC outlets are inconveniently placed, while the electrical cords are cumbersome and must be plugged into the AC outlets. The electrical cords may also be run over by the machines and be exposed to the wet floor.
Furthermore, the prior art machines and methods are only able to complete approximately 200 square feet per day of grinding, honing, and polishing of stone floors, assuming an eight hour work shift. Thus, it is quite time-consuming to completely polish a large floor area.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a stone floor polishing machine and method that requires only a single operator to effectively and efficiently grind, hone, and polish a stone floor.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a stone floor polishing machine and method that is less time consuming to completely polish a large floor area compared with the prior art.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide a stone floor polishing machine and method which is easier to use than the prior art.
These and other objects are attained by the present invention of which the following is a summary.